John Roberds (1800-1880)
}} * Mississippi Saints 1846 Pioneer Company Biography John Roberds was a true Sourtherner. He was born in Franklin County, Georgia. John was the son of Thomas Roberds and Sarah Gilbert. John may have had another wife by the name of Sarah Williamson. Records indicate their marriage was 14 December 1764 in Union County, South Carolina, USA. This record indicates that John would have been born about 1746. Not much is known about his yourth. He married Martha Tucker Walpole on 4 September 1834 in Monroe County, Mississippi. Records indicate Martha was born in the year 1817. This puts John about 17 years older than Martha. She lived 20 years after he died. I know for 14 years he traveled from Monroe, Mississippi to Rincon, San Bernardino County, California before settleing down. This is a very big issue because as a family with all the children many of them would have been teenagers. I know that my grandfather, was the the 13th child. His name was George Washington Roberds. I have one old picture with him and his son George Monroe Roberds. Monroe was the oldest of the George Washington clan. I will add more as the picture becomes more clear. Black Hawk War John Roberds was in the Black Hawk War, and learned to speak the Choctaw and Chickasaw languages. Mississippi Saints 1846 Pioneer Company Numbered amoung the participants in the Mississippi Saints 1846 Pioneer Company, a early Mormon pioneer wagon train that left Mississippi in 1846 to join the Mormon exodus to Utah. This group Brigham Young's vanguard company and spent the winter of 1846/47 at Fort Pueblo where the were joined by soldiers of the sick detachment of the Mormon Battalion. They reached Salt Lake City in late summer of 1847. The Roberds family began their journey with the Mississippi Company, which wintered at Fort Pueblo, Colorado. However, according Richard Thomas Roberd's autobiographical sketch, his family did not leave for the Salt Lake Valley with the rest of the group in the spring of 1847. Rather they remained in Colorado for another year before continuing on to Utah with a group of "mountaineers" headed for California, arriving in Salt Lake City the summer of 1848. Among the Mississippi Saints who arrived in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1848, after traveling three years from Mississippi, was the John Roberds and Martha Tucker Walpole Roderds family. They built a log cabin and spent the winter among the Mormons. In the spring of 1849, John Roberds put in crops and raised grain. The next year, 1850, he decided to go to California with his family. Nevada Gold Discovery William Cook Prows became acquainted with the eldest daughter of the John Roberds family, Lodesky Ann Roberds, who was born 28 July 1835 in Monroe County, Mississippi. When the Roberds left for California in the spring of 1850, William Cook Prows (1827-1894) was in their company. It was led by Thomas Orr. On 14 April 1850, William Cook Prows and Lodeskey Ann Roberds were married at Mary's River, a branch of the Humboldt River, State of Nevada, by Benjamin Mathevis. To add to the excitement of their marriage, William Cook Prows was credited with being the first person to discover gold in Nevada. "On the 15th day of May, 1850, the party halted for a few hours at noon, beside a little creek flowing down from the range of hills which bounded the valley on the eat. The cattle were turned loose to graze among the sagebrush and the women of the party prepared a simple dinner of bacon and potatoes. William Cook Prows meanwhile picked up a tin milk pan and, going down to the edge of the creek, began washing the surface dirt. After a few minutes he returned and showed his companions a few glittering specks on the bottom of the pan. The specks were gold dust, worth intrinsically only a few cents, thrown carelessly aside a few moments later, but they were then transformed into precious and fruitful seed, for this pinch of dust was positive evidence of the existence of gold in the deserts of western Utah (now Nevada) and that starting point once given, the exploration and developement of the mineral resources of the land were assured." Marriage and Family # Lodesky Ann Roberds (1835-1922) - 1846-48 Pioneer Trek to Utah # Richard Thomas Roberds (1837-1915) - 1846-48 Pioneer Trek to Utah # Mary Belvidera Roberds (1839-1919) - 1846-48 Pioneer Trek to Utah # Harriet Luanna Roberds (1840-1923) - 1846-48 Pioneer Trek to Utah # Mary Jane Roberds (1842-1844) - Died Young # Frances Eleanor Roberds (1844-1924) - 1846-48 Pioneer Trek to Utah # William Brown Roberds (1845-1926) - 1846-48 Pioneer Trek to Utah # Catherine Arlene Roberds (1849-1902) - Born in Utah # George Washington Roberds (1851-1917) - Born in California # Eunice Samantha Roberds (1854-1928) - Born in California # Lovice Angelina Espesia Roberds (1859-1938)- Born in California See Also * John Roberds * Roberds in Franklin County, Georgia * Roberds in San Bernardino County, California